Peter Blake

V is for Valentine

Peter Blake A Walk in the Tuileries Gardens, 2004 26 colour Screenprint with Silver leaf and 3 Glazes Hand signed and numbered 28/200 by artist on lower front 30 1/5 × 22 1/2 inches The work is matted on board and unframed as it had been removed from its original frame. Measurements: Board: 30 1/8 x 22 1/2 inches Sheet: 24 x 20 inches Unframed A Walk Through the Tuileries Gardens is based on a memory of a stroll in Paris distilled through the ephemera he found along the way. ' The legendary Peter Blake, the father of British Pop Art, is renowned for his love of gathering and collecting the ephemera of life, of memories, of dreams and whimsies, sometimes mingled with those of other historical fantasists. Possessions he regards as symbolic of his relationships with his world, carefully questioning the personal significance of each object in this respect. The scraps of tickets, fragments of plastic, driftwood, pebbles and sycamore leaf in A Walk Through the Tuileries gardens are evocative and ephemeral souvenirs, gathered at the time and collated later perhaps with a whiff of romance. His image takes us, in turn, on a stroll down the wide gravel, under the autumnal trees, a lingering taste of saucisson and red wine on our palate and with a sudden impulse to take a turn on the Caroussel. This whimsical Peter Blake print would make a great gift for any Blake fan. Legendary British Pop Art pioneer British Blake was born in 1932, and after his formal training at the Gravesend School of Art, then at the Royal Academy of Art, he broke away from tradition, producing work from 1960 on that would come to define the British Pop Art Movement. He came to be known as the Grandfather of Pop Art, and his art achieved iconic status with his sleeve for The Beatles’ Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band. Blake’s art draws on imagery from the popular culture of the past and present, as well as from the canon of fine art, thus creating an alternative, more democratic visual aesthetic. He freely mixes the ‘high’ with the ‘low’, ultimately inviting us to see beyond such distinctions. Always playful, and at times irreverent, he sets up the most unlikely juxtapositions across time and space, creating conversations and ‘parties’ to which all are invited. An abiding theme is an investigation, and celebration, of England and Englishness. Collage has always been a hallmark of Blake’s work, allowing him to freely mix found objects and images of people and other artworks; screenprinting, with its use of stencils and layers, lends itself perfectly to this technique, and indeed it was Pop Art that fully realised the potential of screenprinting as a medium for complex replication. More about Peter Blake: Sir Peter Thomas Blake...

Jim Dine The Christmas Print (Burg, 26), 2001 Drypoint, direct gravure, etching over offset lithograph with hand coloring by artist in oil stick, on T.H. Saunders paper, the full she...

Silkscreen collage on paper. Hand signed, titled and numbered by Peter Blake. From the edition of 175. Image size 19 x 16 inches. Sheet size: 27 x 23 inches. Frame size approx 31....

Composition (trompe l'oeil collage), 1956 Peter Blake Lithograph in colours, on wove laid on support card Signed and dated in pencil Sheet: 17.6 × 22.5 cm (7 × 8.9 in) An early li...